Easy come, easy go - The role of windfall money in lab and field experiments

Fredrik Carlsson (), Haoran He () and Peter Martinsson
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Haoran He: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG

No 374, Working Papers in Economics from Göteborg University, Department of Economics

Abstract: A growing number of experimental studies focus on the differences between the lab and the field. Important in this issue is the role of windfall money. By conducting a dictator game, where the recipient is a charity organization, in exactly the same way in the laboratory and in the field, we investigate the influence of windfall and earned endowment on behavior. We find a strong effect on donation amounts of earned endowment in the lab and the field. Subjects donate more if the endowment is a windfall gain. Thus, windfall money is important not only in a lab environment. However, even for earned endowment, there is a significant difference in behavior between the lab and the field.

Keywords: Charitable giving; Dictator game; Laboratory experiment; Field experiment; Windfall money (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C93 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-mic
Date: 2009-08-11

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